Don Winslow’s Cartel Drug Novel Trilogy Heads to FX

Don Winslow’s Cartel drug novel trilogy heads to FX

FX is adapting Don Winslow’s acclaimed Cartel trilogy, namely 2005’s The Power of the Dog, 2015’s The Cartel and the recently published The Border, into a series, according to Deadline. CEO of FX Networks and FX Productions John Landgraf made the deal to purchase the series, which some critics have likened to “a hybrid of The Godfather and War and Peace.”

Per the report, the book series follows DEA agent Art Keller and his 45-year battle with Mexican drug kingpin Adan Berrera. The stories are appropriately brutal in their depiction of everything from power struggles between members of the cartel to the corrupt cops patrolling the border and political corruption.

Ridley Scott, who was set to serve as director on a film adaptation of the first two books in 2015, a move that was ultimately cancelled despite Fox committing $6 million to the production, will executive produce the series along with Winslow and Shane Salerno. Salerno will also co-write the pilot with the yet-to-be-determined show runner. The trade also notes that Winslow and Salerno will help guide and shape the series, but not serve as day-to-day show showrunners.

“I have known and respected Shane Salerno and Don Winslow for almost 20 years, and am beyond thrilled to be working with them again on the series adaptation of Don’s magnum opus – the trilogy made up of his three critically beloved and commercially successful novels,”Landgraf said whilst praising Winslow’s novels as “one of the great crime epics of all time.”

“Nothing excites the team at FX more than the daunting challenge of helping great creators make a television show as ambitious and good as the epically acclaimed books on which it will be based.“